Whether you’re fifteen or fifty, the new recruit or a veteran of employee wars, you have needs as basic as they are essential: A sense of worth, physical security and productivity; a sense of relatedness and responsibility: a need for challenge and affirmation.
If your needs are met, you feel in balance; at one with yourself and the place where you work. If they aren’t met, with consistency, you fight burn out.
To assess your needs, pay attention to what’s going on around you:
A sense of worth is tied to recognition. As an employee you need to know that you’re contributing. If you’re told, in specific, measurable ways that your knowledge, talent and skills make a difference, you feel valued. The more valued you feel, the greater your sense of worth.
A sense of security. As an employee you need to feel that management will make every effort to protect you physically and emotionally. By establishing and maintaining a secure, hazard and harassment free environment with well-maintained equipment and trained personnel, the organization demonstrates that commitment.
A sense of productivity. To complete your work in an acceptable manner you need to know what’s expected of you. You need to have the requisite training, the right equipment, adequate materials, and appropriate time and space to complete what is asked of you.
A sense of relatedness. You need to know how the business is organized. You need to understand how your work relates to that of your co-workers and contributes to the operational goals of a unified organization.
A sense of responsibility. If you are empowered to do your job you have the power and authority to get it done; if your role connects you to the vision and mission of the company, you have an increased sense of accountability to yourself, your co-workers and your company.
A need for challenge. Professional growth, learning and development are requisite needs for every employee at every level of the organization to feel capable of and competent to continue to contribute in a meaningful ways.
Affirmation. You need to know that who you are, what you do and how you do it are appreciated and valued by the people with whom you work.
Where do you stand? If your needs are met, the economy cooperates, and you have the savvy, strengths and skills to succeed, you will. If some or several needs aren’t met (you’ll notice they have a cascading effect), focus on what’s missing; what you could be doing differently and what you should reasonably expect management to provide for you.
If you’re doing more than your fair share and it’s just not working, ask for what you want. Make a business case for it. Connect it to organizational goals and bottom line profitability. Focus on concrete, measurable outcomes. If your request is specific, constructive, developmental, reasonable, and attainable; if it focuses on performance, not personality, and if you emphasize how you can better benefit the company you serve, you might just make it happen.
Employees don’t leave their companies; they leave managers who don’t provide what is reasonable to expect. If you’re a manager who would rather deal with things than people and you know it shows, do something about it.
If you want to bring out the best in employees who look to you for more than a paycheck and you need advice, ask your colleagues who do it right and do it well. Ask your direct reports what they need and evaluate what you can and should be doing to provide those needs for them. Then choose. If you want to manage people make it about them. If you want to manage things, make it about you.
